Victor Nyakauru (b. 1977, Zimbabwe) is a mixed-media artist and sculptor based in Harare, Zimbabwe. He trained at the Visual Art Studios of the National Gallery of Zimbabwe between 2004 and 2007 and later worked as a sculpture instructor at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe School of Visual Art and Design.
Nyakauru is particularly known for his use of found and discarded materials. His sculptures combine stone, metal, wood, bone, plastic, leather and other recovered objects, transforming them into figurative and zoomorphic compositions. His practice draws on Zimbabwean oral traditions, Shona proverbs (tsumo), folklore and contemporary urban life, using familiar cultural references to address social experience, memory and transformation.
In 2009 he undertook a residency at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe. In 2011 he received the Robert Sterling Clark Fellowship for African Artists, which took him to Vermont, USA. He has received numerous national awards, including two NAMA Awards, two PPC Concrete Awards, two National Gallery Outstanding Awards and an ILO Outstanding Mixed Media Work award.
His international activity includes participation in the International Sculpture Symposium in Incheon, South Korea (2014) and an Afrocentric exhibition in Hong Kong (2017).
In 2024 Nyakauru was selected to represent Zimbabwe at the 60th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia, in the national pavilion Undone, curated by Fadzai Veronica Muchemwa and commissioned by Raphael Chikukwa. The pavilion also featured Gillian Rosselli, Kombo Chapfika, Moffat Takadiwa, Sekai Machache and Troy Makaza.
His work Berejena entered the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Zimbabwe after receiving major national recognition in 2008. Documentation concerning Nyakauru's career is also held in the Warren M. Robbins Library at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington, D.C.